China to make anonymity on the Internet even harder

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In China, using the Internet means lots of monitoring and content filtering, as well as an increasing demand for services to only register people using their real identities.

The Chinese government is set to update the law surrounding use of the Internet so as to make it even more difficult to hide your identity. It intends to do this by increasing the number of destinations that count as information service providers. That list will soon include blogs, microblogs, and online forums.

Being classed as an information service provider in China means that the government requires each service has an administrative license. If a service doesn’t it cannot operate, and just as importantly if a service does something wrong they can lose their license. At the same time, it forces those services to demand an individual’s real identity when registering for an account.

Clearly the thinking is that if you are using your real identity online, you are much less likely to do anything wrong, such as make anti-government comments on a forum or post sensitive information on a blog. It also means if you do happen to post something the government don’t like, they know exactly who you are.

The document covering the rules update is known as “Methods for Governance of Internet Information Services” (translated). It will remain in draft form until July 6 and public comment on the changes is allowed. I doubt any of the new rules will get changed though, and they will soon be integrated into the existing law.

Such rules are sure to push more people in China to turn to services that hide their identity online. Why blog using a service in China that demands your identity when you can register via another country and remain anonymous, for example?